Sunday, August 4, 2013

Saturtainment: Tijuana (Texas) Toads (1969)

DePatie-Freleng was still producing theatrical shorts while The Pink Panther graduated, for lack of a better description, to television in 1969. That same year, DFE introduced the Tijuana Toads, Toro & Pancho, in a series of shorts. However, by the time the Toads came to television seven years later, they'd fallen victim to political correctness before that even became trendy. To avoid conflicts over Mexican stereotypes, Toro & Pancho were renamed Banjo & Fatso as the Texas Toads. As such, they lasted just one year on TV, appearing on the Panther's expanded NBC show.

From 1970, here's "A Dopey Hacienda". A laugh track was dubbed in at the insistence, presumably, of NBC.

The redubbed shorts that everyone saw in 1976-7 ruined the humor and flavor of the original shorts. I've actually seen at least one or two of the originals at a theatre well after production had ended, but I didn't find them all that amusing.